Flag Day: Betsy Ross & the US Flag

In commemoration of Flag Day, Xlibris Publishing has decided to discuss the famed story of Betsy Ross and the United States Flag.

Betsy Ross was accredited as being the designer and creator of the early version of the US flag, that being the version of red and white stripes, as well as 13 five-pointed stars forming a circle within a patch of blue.  According to the story, in June 1776, Betsy Ross was visited at her home by a party of gentlemen, including George Washington, Robert Morris, and Betsy’s relative George Ross.

This group of men had been tasked by the Continental Congress to serve as a committee for creating a flag for the young nation. George Washington asked Betsy Ross for her help in the matter. Betsy Ross, with humility, agreed to the task, pointing out ways to improve upon the committee’s proposed design. Once a design had been agreed upon, Betsy set to work sewing the flag.

This is the general account of the story, according to an essay by William J. Canby, a descendant of Betsy Ross, submitted to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1876. Unfortunately, Canby’s story of his ancestor and the United States Flag does not entirely stand up to historical scrutiny.  The story of Betsy Ross and the flag sit in the middle of a historical dilemma. There is not enough, if any, evidence to support that the story actually happened as described, but there is also not enough concrete evidence to assuredly to say the story didn’t happen in some way or another.

All the individuals brought up in the story — Betsy, Washington, Morris, and George Ross — were real people. But many of Canby’s key details fall through. No record exists of a committee ordered by the Continental Congress for the design of a flag in the spring of 1776. George Washington had already been appointed as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775, and thus would have unlikely been ordered to join such a committee.  The Flag Resolution of 1777 was the first official and documented discussion by the Continental Congress in determining a national flag, with multiple designs proposed and temporarily used until the final design was settled in approximately 1780. It is however, possible that Betsy Ross was among many upholsterers paid to sew flags in great numbers, as there was a great need for flags after 1777.

The story of Betsy Ross and the American Flag may just be a story, but as a story it appealed to peoples’ love and desire for heroes and patriots of all kinds to emulate and embody.

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By Ian Smith